No Way
by Dominus Umbra
Summary: Jordan was hallucinating. He had to be. That was the only explanation for what he was seeing, because there was no way that was actually happening. Pairing/warnings inside.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: K, so I figure I better warn y'all right now that this is a femslash piece. A first for this archive, and I know that this pairing is neither realistic nor particularly sub-texted on the show, but I'ma do it anyway. My reasoning is that if they reckon somewhere around 10% of the population is gay, then roughly one in ten fics should be slash, and at the time of posting this is R:SO's twelth fic, so it's overdue. I know this logic doesn't stand up if you think about it for more than a second, but it makes more sense than the current political situation, so I'm going with it.**

**This chapter is set in the scene close to the end of episode 12, just after the whole Lara-on-morphine conversation with Dean.  
**

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Chapter 1

"If I ever become uninvolved, I'll call for Rescue."

"Yeah, and uhh, we'll be here." Jordan plastered a forced smile on his face as he watched the blond hiker nod and disappear between the many vehicles parked in the area. He let the grin slide once she'd vanished from sight, and tossed the bag he'd been fidgeting with into the back of the truck with slightly more force than was necessary, before turning to gather more of the gear. As he hefted another load into the back of the truck, he noticed Chase, who was standing beside the door.

"You gonna help, or you just gonna stand there and watch?" Jordan snapped at him irritably. Chase didn't respond, and it was only when he rounded on him to snap the order again that Jordan noticed his colleague's expression of utter shock. "Chase?"

The younger man again didn't respond, but he did open and close his mouth a few times before simply raising his hand and pointing in the direction he'd been staring. Jordan turned, and his eyes widened as he too saw what had rendered Chase speechless.

'_I'm hallucinating'_ Jordan thought to himself. He had to be. That was the only explanation for what he was seeing, because there was no way that was actually happening. There was no way that that was Heidi bent over Lara as she lay on the gurney behind the ambulance. There was no way that that was Lara's hand tangled in Heidi's hair. And there was definitely no way that they were actually locked in a passionate kiss.

Chase seemed to be thinking along the same lines, judging by the half sentences he was beginning to utter. "Is that…?"

Jordan nodded dazedly. "Uh-huh..."

"Are they…?"

"Uh-huh…"

Not taking his eyes off his colleagues, Jordan felt around for his radio and spoke into it. "Dean, where are you, mate? You gotta see this…"

"_What? I'm kinda busy here."_

Jordan's ability to construct complete sentences had evaporated halfway through Dean's question, when Heidi had shifted her hand slightly. "Heidi and Lara…"

"_What about Lara? Jordan, is there a problem with your radio or something?"_

"Just go look…"

"_Look at what? If there's a proble—oh. Wow."_

Jordan's thoughts exactly.

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**AN: Okay, I know the authors notes are in danger of becoming longer than the chapter, but bear with me. **

**There are two options from here. Option number one is that I end the story here, and leave it as a random, short-ass oneshot. Option number two is that I continue, and we see how far I can take this plotline. **

**Which option I choose is directly related to the feedback I get, so review, damnit.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Okay, so this turned out longer and angstier than I anticipated. But bear with me, it gets happier later on, I swear.**

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Chapter 2

They were all watching her. They had been for days. Heidi could feel it, and it was driving her crazy. She'd actually found herself hoping that some dodo would get themselves stuck in a drain or thrown off a cliff, simply so they'd have something to do other than eye her covertly when they thought she wasn't paying attention. They'd all been glancing at her out of the corner of their eyes since The Thing, but none of them had spoken about it. To her, anyway. Heidi was sure that Dean'd had a "what the hell was that?" talk with Lara – which was more than she'd managed yet – but so far the icy glare and the firm "I don't want to talk about it" she'd given them at the scene seemed, surprisingly, to be working. And although they'd undoubtedly heard about it by now, both her bosses hadn't said anything, either. Michelle seemed content to stay out of it unless it started interfering with her work, and Vince had pulled on his I-don't-deal-with-personal-crap hat, which suited her fine.

While Heidi was grateful for the reprieve, she knew it wouldn't last much longer. She was actually mildly surprised that Jordan and Chase had lasted the three days since it'd happened without saying anything to her, and she was sure that sooner or later, one of them was going to explode with curiosity.

Dean, on the other hand, was a different story. Heidi was under no illusions that her intimidation had worked on him, and the fact that he hadn't mentioned it to her led her to think that he'd got all the answers he needed from Lara. That was hardly surprising, since they both had the sibling-like ability to push each other's buttons, but it also meant that Dean now knew far more about the situation than Heidi herself. She hadn't actually spoken to her blond colleague since that day, and she knew that was something she needed to do, preferably before Lara came back to work. But she'd been putting it off, mostly because she still wasn't entirely sure how she felt about the whole thing.

Heidi was 99% sure she wasn't gay. That one, drunken time at university notwithstanding, she'd never kissed another woman. She'd never wanted to, until now. But for an allegedly straight woman, she was having a hell of a lot of trouble forgetting a probably-drug-fuelled kiss with a female teammate. That in itself brought up the other question she was struggling with: why had Lara kissed her? Heidi didn't remember much about the beginning of the kiss, she'd been too distracted by the surprise to take in much else, but she did clearly remember that contact had been initiated by the blond woman. She was guessing that morphine probably had a fair bit to do with it, but she also knew enough about the side effects to know that it wouldn't make someone do something they didn't already want to do on some level. Which meant that on some level, Lara had wanted to kiss her.

If you had asked Heidi this time last week if she thought Lara was anything other than straight, her answer would have been a unequivocal no, and she was usually pretty good at spotting things like that. But she hadn't seen this coming. And maybe she was over-thinking it, and it was just a result of Lara's susceptibility to morphine highs. But what if it wasn't? Heidi mentally shied away from the warm rush of…_something_ that shot through her at that thought. Lara was engaged. Heidi absolutely could not be happy about wanting to kiss her again. She should be feeling guilty as hell. But she wasn't.

**.**

Heidi was jolted out of her contemplation by a call out to an MVA. It'd taken Jordan three attempts to get her attention, and it was with great reluctance that she followed him down to the trucks, knowing that he'd probably take advantage of the privacy to start interrogating her.

Surprisingly, he didn't. The drive was silent, apart from the brief description of the accident that Vince gave them over the radio, and they arrived to one of the most bizarre scenes Heidi had ever been to. Somehow, the driver had rolled the car in such a way that it was now resting on its back bumper, with the front bumper wedged under the gutter of the house he'd just managed to avoid ploughing through. Neither driver nor passenger were seriously injured – unless you counted the ridiculously high BAC – and it was a fairly easy extraction, but Heidi felt sorry for the crash investigators who now had to figure out exactly how the driver had managed to manoeuvre the car into that position.

**…**

It was on the way back to HQ that Jordan finally gave in to his curiosity.

"So…" he started, after a few minutes silence. "Lara's back tomorrow. How long d'you reckon she'll be on light duties?"

"Not long enough, knowing her."

"So what's the deal with you two?"

"Nice segue." Heidi answered, hoping that her avoidance of the question would deter him.

It didn't. He gazed steadily at her, face set in his annoying I'm-gonna-keep-asking look. Heidi tightened her grip on the steering wheel and kept her gaze fixed on the road until that irritating look became insufferable and she snapped.

"It was nothing." _I think._ "I don't wanna talk about it."

Jordan allowed himself a small grin of triumph. "Jeez, if that was nothing then I'd like to see a kiss that _isn't_ nothing with you."

"Jordan…"

"What? I'm just sayin' a forty-two second kiss doesn't seem like nothing to me." At her questioning glance, he explained. "Chase timed it."

Heidi rolled her eyes and focused back on the road. "Yeah, well, it was nothing."

"You're blushing a lot over 'nothing'. You know she's getting married in…" he checked his watch. "four days, right?"

Heidi knew. She'd been constantly reminding herself that in the hope that it would make the weird feeling in her chest disappear. "She started it. Are you gonna give her the third-degree about this?"

"Lara was high, what's your excuse?" His tone lost its bantering quality and became more serious as he asked.

That was a good question. A snarky _'Have you seen her?' _was Heidi's first thought, but she didn't voice it, opting instead to glare at Jordan in the hope he'd get the message and drop it.

He didn't. "Well? C'mon, Heidi, that seriously came outta nowhere. What's going on?"

"I don't know, alright!" She finally snapped as she guided the truck into the HQ garage behind Dean. "I don't know why she kissed me and I don't know why I let her. I'm as confused as the rest of you. Now, if you're finished with the interrogation, I've got work to do."

With that, she pulled the handbrake on far harder than necessary and got out, slamming the door behind her and leaving a puzzled Jordan to check the equipment.

"What was that about?" Chase asked him as he got out of the second truck. Jordan just shrugged.

"I've got no idea, mate."

**…**

Their confusion was further heightened when, ten minutes later, Heidi stormed past where Jordan and Chase were restocking the medipacks and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Jordan called after her, not really expecting an answer.

"Out." She called back, to his surprise. "Cover for me."

Jordan glanced at Chase, who just shrugged.

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**AN: Lemme know what you think. It felt slight OOC to me, but I couldn't put my finger on why so I just went with it. **


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Woo, chapter three. So I've decided that I'mma just hang a disclaimer here that says "Warning, story may contain OoCness. Please suspend disbelief." and leave it at that. So consider yourselves warned.**

**I should also point out that I don't particularly like Hamish, and thus I reserve the right to make him a massive jerkhead. That is all.**

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Chapter 3

Jordan was confused. Not only had he failed to get anything other than a headache out of his 'talk' with Heidi yesterday, but Dean was also being uncharacteristically reluctant to help him work out what was going on. All that the senior rescuer had said after talking to Lara was "leave it alone", which led Jordan to suspect that the whole situation was far more complex than he realised and this may be more than just a light-hearted, morphine-induced kiss between friends.

His suspicions were heightened by the fact that Lara didn't show up for work on what was supposed to be her first day back, and confirmed later that day when her fiancé stormed into the stationhouse, raging.

"Gallagher! You son-of-a-bitch, where are you?" he yelled, instantly attracting the attention of everyone in the garage and equipment area.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Hamish. Calm down, mate." Jordan caught the lawyer by the shoulders as he tried to push past him up the stairs. "What's going on, mate?"

"What's going on is your asshole mate Dean has been sleeping with my fiancée!"

"What?" Chase had come downstairs to see what the commotion was about, followed by Heidi and Vince. The younger Gallagher moved to help Jordan restrain the irate man as he tried to break free of his hold. Behind Hamish's back, Chase mimed drinking at Jordan and he nodded, having noticed the smell of booze on Hamish when he came in.

"Your brother has been having an affair with Lara! I'll kill the son-of-a-bitch! Where is he?"

"Mate, calm down. Dean's not here." Jordan told him, which was true. He and Michelle had gone to some press conference thing. Originally, Vince had been the one going with her, but Michelle had muttered something about him having the political sense of a trout and had elected to take Dean instead.

"What makes you think he and Lara are having an affair?" Chase asked him, looking genuinely curious.

"She told me!" Hamish broke free of Jordan's grip as it slackened in surprise, but Chase and Vince caught him before he could go anywhere. Out of the corner of his eye, Jordan saw Heidi stiffen, but her expression was blank when he spared her a glance.

"What?" Chase voiced what they were all thinking.

"She told me something had happened with one of her colleagues and she needed some time to think about things. Then she packed a bag and left! It doesn't take a genius to work out she meant Dean; I've seen how they are around each other. I'm gonna kill that little prick."

To their credit, no one in the room even glanced in Heidi's direction during Hamish's tirade, and Jordan was surprised by their self-control. He knew that almost everyone within earshot was aware of at least part of what Hamish was talking about, and the fact that they were all covering for Heidi was a testament to their loyalty as a group.

"Hamish, mate, calm down and start from the beginning." Vince told him, leading the lawyer over to sit on the stairs. "And the rest of you get back to work!" He added to the other Rescue workers who'd stopped to watch the show. For the most part, they did a passable job of pretending to follow the order, and Vince was too concentrated on Hamish to push them further. "Start from the start, mate."

Hamish was starting to calm down somewhat, but he was still shifting restlessly, trying to wriggle out from under the hand Vince hand on his shoulder. "Lara's been weird with me ever since she came back from the hospital after that rescue in the national park. At first, I just thought it was because she was annoyed about the crutches and the painkillers, but she's been off them for a couple of days and it's just got worse. Then she didn't come home last night—"

Jordan was surprised when Heidi shifted uncomfortably as Hamish said that, and he struggled to keep his face blank as the implications flashed across his mind. Heidi hadn't come back after she went 'out' yesterday afternoon, either.

"—and then when she did come home this morning, she said that something had happened with one of her colleagues and she had to think about things and she couldn't do that with me around. Then she left and I haven't heard from her since. All because your bastard mate couldn't keep his hands to himself."

"Dean wasn't with Lara last night." Chase assured him. "He hooked up with some traffic cop from the MVA yesterday. She was there when I picked him up this morning."

"Well it was one of you! And you all know who, don't you? Who is it? Which one of you did she betray me for?" He jumped up as he yelled, but was quickly restrained again by Chase and Vince.

Nobody said anything, and nobody would meet his eye as he looked around the room. After a long, painful silence, Hamish went slack in their grip and the anger seemed to drain out of him, replaced by resigned helplessness.

"Of course you won't tell me. You lot close ranks; protect each other. I never really stood a chance against that. Did I?"

The silence that followed his rhetorical question was broken unexpectedly by three words that shocked the few who didn't already know and surprised those who did.

"It was me."

Suddenly, the one person in the room that they'd all been struggling not to look at had their undivided attention. The half a dozen or so other Rescue workers stopped any pretence of working and stared openly at the confrontation. Hamish appeared not to fully comprehend what Heidi had said, and he stared at her in confusion for a moment before speaking.

"What?"

"It was me, Hamish, and I'm sorry." Jordan was staring at Heidi along with everyone else, and he could clearly see the anguish in her eyes.

Hamish seemed speechless, and Vince took advantage of that to regain some control over the situation. "Right, Chase and Jordan, upstairs. Go do paperwork or something. You mob! Back to work! You and you," he pointed to Heidi and Hamish, "outside, now."

He led them both out the front of the Rescue building, away from eavesdroppers, before rounding on them.

"Right. I was perfectly happy to stay out of this when it was just a friendly little kiss between co-workers, but it's obviously gone beyond that and now it's messing with my station."

Hamish and Heidi both started speaking at the same time.

"You knew about this? You—"

"It's not a problem, I'll sort it—"

Vince raised his voice to cover theirs. "Shut up, both of you! Our first priority is to find Lara, we'll deal with the other shit later. Hamish, I'm assuming you don't know where she is?"

He shook his head, still looking slightly dazed at the turn of events. "I've been trying to call her, but she's not picking up."

Vince turned his attention back to Heidi. "Do you know where she is?" Heidi shook her head mutely. "Right then, so we need to find her. I'll take care of that, you two go back to work."

They both started protesting at the same time, making their individual words hard to decipher.

"Vince, no. I want to—"

"She's my fiancée, I'm not—"

The station coordinator held up a hand to silence them. "Enough! Jeesh, between the two of you, I'm not surprised she nicked off. I'll find her and make sure she's okay. Heidi-ho, go back inside and write reports, wash the trucks, I don't care. Do something productive. Hamish, go find somewhere quiet to sleep it off, then go back to your office and do lawyer stuff. I'll let you both know when I find her."

Heidi, knowing that it was best to follow orders when Vince had his serious voice on, did as she was told, albeit reluctantly. Hamish didn't move, but he fell silent as Vince dialled a number on his mobile. Heidi only caught the beginning of the conversation as the door swung shut behind her.

"Davo, mate! It's Vince. Listen, mate, I need a favour…"

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**AN: Reviews. I needs them.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Two stories updated in one night! Woo! Think of it as me making up for not doing anything constructive for about two months. **

**This story will get happier and less angsty eventually, I promise. Stick with it.  
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Chapter 4

Unsurprisingly, it didn't take Vince that long to find Lara. The man had more connections that a King's Cross drug lord. She was checked into a hotel under her middle name and, according to the receptionist, she hadn't left her room since she'd arrived.

The detective who'd found her had given Vince the name of the hotel and Lara's room number, and he was now debating what to do with that information. Since she was obviously close to the heart of the problem, he couldn't send Heidi, which is what he usually did for things like this. Hamish was out for the same reasons, and that left him with limited options.

In the end, he gave it to Dean, who'd just returned from the press conference, along with his keys and a muttered instruction to take his car and make sure Lara was okay. Dean nodded, then left.

Once he got to the hotel, Dean just strolled past the receptionist like he belonged there, and wasn't challenged. It didn't take him long to find the room he was looking for, and after a brief hesitation, he knocked on the door.

"Lara? It's Dean." There was no answer, so he continued. "I know you're in there. You let me in when you're ready, but I'm staying out here until you let me know you're okay. And I know I'm not great at the whole Dr Phil thing, but if you need someone to talk to, I'm better than no one, right? And-"

Dean's rambling was cut off by the rattle of the lock and the door opening to reveal Lara. She looked dishevelled, and it was obvious she'd been crying.

"How did you find me?" she asked in lieu of a greeting.

"Vince called in a favour. You alright?"

"Not really." She turned and disappeared back into the room, which Dean took as an invitation. He followed her, shutting the door behind him, and took a seat beside her where she'd flopped down onto the bed and lay staring up at the ceiling.

"So Hamish came to the stationhouse today." He started after it became apparent Lara wasn't going to say anything. "Apparently, he was drunk and ranting about how you'd left him because you'd slept with me." Lara glanced at him briefly with a sort of detached surprise in her eyes. "Yeah, surprised me too when I heard about it. You'd think I'd remember something like that…" He caught the expression on her face and realised that now probably wasn't the time for jokes. "Sorry. Anyway, after Chase told him that it couldn't possibly have been me, he started yelling about how it had to be one of us because you'd told him you spent last night 'with a colleague'."

Lara had gone back to staring at the ceiling as he spoke. She was fiddling with her engagement ring with one hand, and absently tracing a red mark on her neck that was just visible under her collar with the other.

"Naturally, he assumed it was me and he was apparently about ready to break my jaw until Heidi confessed."

That drew the first reaction he'd got since she'd let him in. Lara closed her eyes and drew a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "So Hamish knows."

"Yeah." Dean confirmed. "After that, Vince sent Chase and Jordan back to work and took Hamish and Heidi outside, so they don't know what happened, but Jordan said Heidi came back ten minutes later and wouldn't talk to anyone. Just after Jordan finished telling me that, Vince came over and told me to come here and make sure you were alright."

As he finished talking, Lara's phone beeped from its position on the bedside table. She made no move to answer it, and when the display lit up briefly, Dean saw the alert on the screen. _'17 missed calls'_.

"What's going on, Lara?" He'd got what he now suspected was a highly edited version the day after the rescue at the national park, but things were obviously not as simple as Lara had claimed.

She didn't look at him as she spoke. "I don't know. I messed up. I just…I kissed her and…she…then Hamish…"

"Why don't you start at the start?"

She gave mirthless laugh, then nodded and took a deep breath. "I kissed Heidi. I didn't mean to, but the morphine was making me feel all…I don't know, floaty. And then she was there and I just…kissed her. I didn't even know I wanted to until I did, but then I wanted to really badly. Then I remembered Hamish and I stopped, but it was so hard. Then she left, and Hamish was at the hospital, and he was being so sweet and concerned, and all I could think about was that I wanted to see her again. Then she called yesterday and said we needed to talk, and I said we couldn't do it at my place 'coz Hamish was there, so we met at hers and she said she didn't know what the hell was going on. And I told her I was sorry about what happened, but I couldn't stop thinking about it, and then she kissed me and I didn't stop her. I didn't _want_ to stop her. Then it just…"

"Then you didn't make it home that night." Dean supplied, and Lara nodded.

"And now I don't know what to do. I'm not gay!"

"You're not gay. So what, you're a Heidi-sexual? I'm guessing she's the one who put that there." Dean pointed to the red mark Lara had been tracing, and she covered it self-consciously with her hand. "As hot as that is, you need to sort this out, Lara."

She sat up and eyed him guardedly. "You're taking this very calmly."

He shrugged. "It's nice for me to be on this side of the 'holy shit' relationship chats for a change. Don't change the subject; how are you gonna sort this out?"

"I don't know! I don't even know what I want." She buried her face in her hands."I really messed up."

Dean looked at her, surprised. "What d'you mean you don't know what you want?"

"I mean I love Hamish, I really do, but last night…" She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. "I just…I don't know…"

"Have you actually spoken to Heidi about this?"

"We didn't really have a proper conversation. We got…distracted."

"Well, that's probably what you need to do. Somewhere where there's no chance of you getting 'distracted'." Suddenly he stood and offered her a hand. "C'mon, I know a place." He helped her up, then pulled out his phone and hit the speed dial. "Jordan, get Heidi and meet me at the pub." Lara shot him a questioning glance, and he replied with his 'trust me' look.

Back at the stationhouse, Jordan glanced over to where Heidi was slumped over her desk in the same position she'd been in for half an hour. "I don't think she's really in the mood, mate."

"_Just bring her. It's important."_

"I'll try." Jordan told him doubtfully. "What's going on?"

"_Good. See you in twenty."_

Jordan sighed, annoyed, as the dial tone sounded in his ear. The possible love triangle drama was rapidly losing its novelty value, especially since the reactions of those involved were telling him that the ramifications were apparently more serious that Jordan had originally thought, and this wasn't something that could be shrugged off with a week of teasing followed by never mentioning it again.

He stood, and approached Heidi's desk cautiously. The redhead had been snapping at anyone brave enough to come near her since Hamish had left, and Jordan wasn't willing to lose a limb to fulfil Dean's request.

Heidi had been staring at the same page for the last ten minutes, and she didn't respond when Jordan said her name. He decided to take advantage of her inattentiveness and grabbed her hand, pulling her to her feet and towards the stairs before she realised what was happening.

"Jordan, what the hell?"

"Dean wants us at the pub."

She yanked her hand out of his grip. "Yeah, well, I'm not in the mood."

"Dean said it was important. And last time I saw him, Vince'd sent him to find Lara, so it's probably about her."

Jordan could see the conflicted feelings playing in Heidi's eyes, but eventually she turned and snagged her jacket off the back of her chair. "I'm driving."

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**Reviews for DU?**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I'm not dead, just busy. Real life sucks sometimes. **

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Chapter 5

"Are you gonna explain what's going on now?" Jordan asked Dean as he slid him a beer. The two rescuers were sitting in the relatively quiet bar, keeping an eye on their two female colleagues who were sitting a few tables away. Lara and Heidi hadn't been able to look each other in the eye when they first arrived, but they'd gradually started talking – aided, Jordan suspected, by the beer Dean had put in front of each of them – and they were now engaged in a quiet but intense conversation.

"Mate, you know as much as I do." Dean replied, taking a sip of his drink. Jordan shot him his 'bullshit' look, and Dean shrugged. "Honest."

"You're lying to me, Gallagher."

"Hey mate, what I do know about it is you wanna stay outta it. It's gonna get messy."

"How messy?"

"Dunno. Depends on the outcome of this little conversation, I guess." Dean indicated the women with his bottle as he spoke.

Jordan took a sip of his beer, then glanced around. "So why here?"

"I figured they were less likely to rip each other's clothes off in the middle of a room of strangers."

Jordan shot a glance over at their co-workers, as if mentioning the idea would cause them to carry it out while Dean grinned lopsidedly. There was a moment of silence, then Jordan spoke again.

"It must suck to be Hamish right now. Poor bloke's got no idea what's going on."

"He's not the only one…"

…

The two male rescuers switched to soft drink after their first beer, and their conversation shifted to less serious topics. They kept an eye on their colleagues, sparing them a glance every few minutes, but it was close to an hour before there was any change.

"Michelle's gonna go mental if we're away much longer." Jordan grumbled into his coke.

"Uhp, movement." Dean muttered as Lara stood, interrupting Jordan's grumbling. Both men watched as the blond woman extended her hand towards Heidi, but stopped short of actually touching her. She held that pose for a moment, as if she wanted to draw the other woman into a hug, but in the end all she did was briefly cover Heidi's hand with her own. Then she turned and moved quickly towards the door.

Dean sighed. "This looks like it's gonna be fun. I'll see you later." Both men drained their glasses and stood, Jordan heading over to where Heidi still sat at the table and Dean following Lara out the door.

He found her in the car park. She was leaning against Vince's car with her forehead pressed against the glass of the passenger's side window. Dean silently unlocked the car, and neither of them spoke until they were both settled in their seats.

"So where am I taking you?" Dean asked, breaking the silence.

"What?" Lara's thoughts were obviously focused elsewhere.

"D'you wanna go see Hamish, or d'you wanna go to work? Or I could take you back to the hotel." She just looked at him, indecision playing across her expression. "Or we could go to the airport and run away to Hawaii together."

That got a smile, albeit a small one. "Vince would be very annoyed."

"He'd get over it."

Lara smiled again, but then her face grew serious and she exhaled heavily. "I…I don't know." She hesitated, then, "Hamish. I need to talk to Hamish. If he'll see me, that is…" She added as an afterthought.

"Vince told him to go back to his office once he sobered up, so he's probably there." Dean said, starting the car. "I don't know where that is." He prompted when Lara didn't respond.

She rattled off the address, and Dean pulled out into the flow of traffic.

The first few minutes of the drive were silent, until Dean's curiosity got the better of him. "So what happened?" He asked, discarding the subtle approach. "Lara?" he added when she didn't answer.

"Nothing. Nothing happened."

"What?"

"Between me 'n Heidi. Nothing happened." She wouldn't look at him as she spoke.

"Lara, you kissed her in front of us. Heidi admitted you spent the night together in front of about a dozen people. It's a bit late to start whitewashing things."

"The kiss was because of the morphine. And last night was a one-night stand. You've had your share of those."

"True, but I'm not engaged. Plus Heidi is, you know, a woman." Dean pointed out, alternating his gaze between Lara and the road.

"You've never had a one night stand with a woman?" Lara smirked, and for a brief moment, Dean caught a glimpse of Lara as she was before.

He rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean."

She didn't answer immediately. But after a few moments, she spoke quietly, her earlier confidence gone. "It's easier this way. We agreed."

"What?"

"Everything's just easier if it was nothing. There's Hamish, and work, and… We can't… I couldn't…"

Dean watched her for a moment as they stopped a set of lights. "If you could, would you?"

She looked out the window and again refused to meet his eye. Her silence spoke volumes.

…

Lara convinced Dean that he didn't need to wait for her while she spoke to Hamish, so he left her outside his firm's offices and reluctantly drove back to the stationhouse. Heidi was back at her desk when he walked upstairs, and as he sat down Jordan approached him. After sharing a very general version of his conversation with Lara, and learning that Jordan had had a similar conversation with Heidi and was equally unconvinced, Dean went in search of Vince.

He found him in the equipment room, trying to be patient as he explained to a rookie how to check and store the BA's properly. When he noticed Dean's approach, he waved the rookie away.

"Forget it, Squeaky, I'll do the rest." The newbie looked relieved as he scurried past Dean, and the unit leader shot Vince a questioning look.

"Squeaky?" he asked, tossing Vince his keys.

"Yeah, the kid's so green he squeaks. How'd it go with Lara?"

"She reckons she and Heidi've sorted it, but I think we should keep an eye on them for a while."

"Sorted how?"

"They're both saying it was nothing, and I left Lara at Hamish's office, so…"

"So everything back to normal, then?" The slightly sarcastic tone to Vince's voice told Dean that he thought that was wishful thinking, and Dean couldn't help but agree with him.

…

Dean's prediction was proven correct over the next few days. While there was no overt change in the interaction between the two women, there was a subtle atmosphere of tension that the others picked up on. The only mention of Lara's wedding – or possible lack thereof – came on the day the nuptials were scheduled to be held. Lara had walked into the station, pointedly ignoring any and all confused looks directed her way, until Dean found her in the locker room.

"Aren't you supposed to be getting married today?"

"No." Her answer was clipped, and her tone invited no further questions, so Dean didn't push it. He did note that she was still wearing her engagement ring, though, and Hamish picked her up after work.

Those short, one-word answers had become Lara's standard response to any questions about her personal life, and after a few days, Dean stopped trying to ask.

Lara was still on light duties because of her ankle, which was a blessing, in Dean's opinion. He was well acquainted with his blond colleague's habit of disregarding safety protocols when she was dealing with personal problems, and was glad he wouldn't have to chase her down storm drains for the next few days at least.

Heidi, on the other hand, was not on light duties, and Dean was beginning to wonder if recklessness was transmitted through sex. While she wasn't even close to Lara's record, Heidi was taking far more risks than Dean was entirely comfortable with. And even though there was nothing in her behaviour that was serious enough for Dean to confront her about, the change in her personality worried him.

What concerned him more, however, was the possibility that Heidi's behaviour would fuel Lara's when she came back to the field. Knowing that they were each the cause of the other's unrest, he suspected that having them both working together was going to cause problems. If nothing else, the prospect of having to keep an extra eye on both of them was making his head hurt.

* * *

**Next time: Lara's return to work. Should be fun, right? Review make me go faster.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Dean's apprehension turned out to be well founded, and the rest of the unit seemed to have decided to leave it to him to sort the mess out, much to Dean's irritation. Jordan and Chase, after a few half-hearted attempts at talking about it, had given up, and Vince and Michelle seemed happy to continue their policy of non-interference, though Vince had muttered something to him about the 'responsibility of a team leader'.

While Heidi continued to quietly flout any safety regulations she found inconvenient at the time, Lara was far more overt. However, it was only after Dean caught her free-climbing a Ferris wheel without a harness to untangle a rope that had fouled the mechanism that he began actively separating the two women, sending Heidi up in the chopper as often as he could and keeping the pair of them away from height and depth as much as possible. He was hoping the two women would sort themselves out before the inevitable explosion, but knowing Lara and Heidi, he knew that was unlikely.

**...**

No such luck. It came to a head a week and a half after Lara came off light duties. The team was coming back from a call, sans Jordan, who'd been confined to the station until he'd "done something about the rainforest of paperwork on his desk," as Vince had succinctly put it. Covering for him was Mick, a rookie from another unit. He'd taken an instant liking to Heidi, and had been making doe eyes at her for most of the day, much to the redhead's annoyance. Chase found it highly amusing, but as far as Dean was concerned, it was a headache he could do without.

The unit leader gritted his teeth. They'd been driving for just over half an hour, and Mick's confidence had apparently built to the point where he was comfortable talking directly to Heidi without stuttering, something he was taking full advantage of. He'd been bombarding her with compliments and not-so-subtle hints that he'd like to take her out some time, and Dean was grateful that Lara was in the other truck with Chase. As it was, Heidi was getting increasingly annoyed at the rookie, and was running out of way to turn him down politely.

Mick was beginning to repeat himself with his admiration of Heidi, and Dean was about to snap at him to shut up for his own sanity when about three hundred metres in front of them, a sedan coming the other was swerved violently to the side, crashing through the guardrail of the bridge it had been crossing and into the river. Dean slammed the brakes on, sliding the truck to a stop a few metres from the damaged section, and jumped out, instantly switching back into rescue mode.

The car had twisted as it fell, landing driver's-side-up in the water. The driver had managed to open his door and climb out, but he'd quickly lost his footing on the slippery surface and fell into the water where the current was pulling him slowly downstream. The recent rain had turned the usually shallow, slow moving creek into a much faster, deeper river.

Chase, who'd pulled up behind Dean, followed Heidi to the equipment, where they each grabbed a throw-bag. Chase threw his over the side of the bridge to stop the driver floating any further away, while Heidi headed for the bank of the river where she could pull him to safety. Mick looked like he wanted to follow her, but Dean yelled at him to get on crowd control. Luckily, there weren't many other cars in the area.

Chase could hear the driver yelling something as he clung to the small red bag, but couldn't make out the words over the traffic and the river. "Don't worry, mate, we'll have you out in a sec!"

The man shook his head, and yelled louder. "My son! My little boy!"

Chase swore as he comprehended what he was saying and he turned and yelled to Dean, interrupting his radio message to Vince. "Dean! There's a kid in the car!"

Dean and Lara both ran to where the car had gone in and peered over the edge. Through the open door of the car, they could see a boy of about nine, trying to free himself from his seatbelt as the car slowly sank into the water.

"Shit. Okay, okay, we'll need winches and harnesses. Lara, grab the—"

Dean's orders were cut off by a chunk of debris that had been precariously resting on the remainder of the guardrail falling from its perch, slamming into the car and forcing the door closed. The boy's screams were clearly audible as the car got lower and lower in the water.

Dean was rapidly rethinking his strategy when he noticed Lara stripping off her jacket and radio. "Woah, woah, woah, what're you doing?"

"There's no time, we've gotta get that kid outta there now."

"Lara, no wait! Lara!" Dean grabbed at her arm, but caught only air as she took a running dive over the edge of the bridge. "Shit! Chase!" he turned and yelled to his brother, who was still leaning over the other side of the bridge, before dropping to his stomach and getting as close as he dared to the edge to get a better look.

Lara had surfaced a few metres from the car, which had drifted closer to the bridge, but was being held roughly in place by debris that was still attached to the structure. However, that didn't stop the current pushing on the vehicle, and instead of pushing it further down the river, the steady flow of water was instead slowly rotating the car, turning it upside-down. By the time Lara reached it, all four wheels were out of the water, while the roof was almost entirely submerged.

"Chase, get you dive gear and get down there. Take some spare air with you, but do it quickly!"

His brother nodded and took off towards the trucks, which Mick had manoeuvred to form a roadblock, but Dean knew it was probably pointless. By the time Chase got back, they'd be either out of the river or beyond help. Knowing that, Dean headed the in opposite direction, towards the other end of the bridge. When he got level with the bank, he vaulted the guardrail, taking a moment to regain his footing before turning his attention back to the river, searching desperately for his partner.

He caught sight of her in time to see Lara's head disappear under the front of the car, and for countless, heart-stopping seconds, there was nothing but the swirling water and the occasional burst of air. Spots appeared in Dean's vision, and he realised he was holding his breath. Just as he forced himself to release it, two heads broke the surface of the water.

The boy was crying, and it took Lara several seconds to struggle into a position in which she could keep them both afloat. She began swimming across the current, towing the boy towards where Dean had waded as far as he dared into the swollen river, and together they dragged the child up the bank and back onto dry land. The boy was shaking, both from cold and fear, as Dean gave him a quick once over to make sure he had no injuries that required immediate attention, while beside him, Lara was attempting to catch her breath through chattering teeth. The boy was covered in mud, which made it difficult, but it seemed he had been lucky, escaping his ordeal with only some minor lacerations, and a possible broken wrist.

Yelling from somewhere above them distracted Dean from his examination, and he glanced up to see the driver stumbling down towards him, followed by Heidi, who'd been trying to guide him towards the ambulance that had just arrived.

"Caleb! Is he okay? Cay, are you okay, buddy?"

"Sir, just back off for a moment, let me finish." Dean told the frantic man, trying to elbow him away from the boy.

"He'll be okay, right? He's gonna be fine?"

"He'll need to go to the hospital to get x-rays, but he should be fine. If you could just go and wait up on the bridge… Heidi, take him, would you?"

But Heidi wasn't paying attention. Instead, her focus was on where Lara was sprawled on her back beside Dean, catching her breath.

"Lara, your arm…" Heidi knelt down beside the blonde and took her hand, moving the limb to reveal a jagged cut, starting on the back of her wrist, curving around and ending about half way down her forearm.

Lara sat up but didn't answer; while Heidi's attention was focused on the injury, Lara's was focused on where Heidi's hand was wrapped around her own. When the redhead realised what she was staring at, she snatched her hand back like it had been burned.

"You should…I mean, I think it needs stitches…" She stood quickly, and moved back to where the father was kneeling next to his son. "C'mon Mr Jones, Caleb's gonna be fine. I want to dress that cut on your jaw." She pulled him gently to his feet and guided him back up the bank, towards the flashing blue lights of the ambulances while at the water's edge, Lara was still looking at where Heidi's hand had covered her own.


End file.
